BEAUMONT, Texas – Mental health has become a buzz word, or hot topic, in recent years and made more mainstream because of athletes like Olympian Simone Biles during the Tokyo Summer games. But, for Mark and Kym Hilinski, the phrase mental health became much more than a simple "buzzword" on Jan. 16, 2018. On that day, their son Tyler – a standout quarterback at Washington State – took his own life after struggling silently with a disease we call mental health.
 
Amid overwhelming grief, the Hilinski family decided to turn their pain into hope – hope for others who might be dealing with their similar struggles as Tyler – and that is when they created the Hilinski's Hope Foundation (H3H). Hilinski's Hope not only keeps the memory of Tyler alive but also fights for the mental health of student-athletes.
 
The Hilinski's do this by "sharing Tyler's story, connecting students with mental health resources, assisting universities in institutionalizing best practices, and generating the funding necessary to support programs that will help destigmatize mental illness." One of the resources they've created to help facilitate this is called Game Plan – which was created through a partnership with the NCAA Sports Science Institute and Prevention Strategies.
 
Monday evening, Mark and Kym met with all 17 Lamar University varsity sports and department administrators to not only share Tyler's story but provide a message that if someone is dealing with mental health issues you're not alone. In addition to the Hilinski family, LU had counselors on hand during the seminar.
 
"At Lamar University student-athlete welfare is one of our core values and mental health is a major component of that," said Director of Athletics Jeff O'Malley. "It has become a hot topic and we want our student-athletes to know that they have resources available to them should they need help. We want to educate them, so they understand there is help available. 
 
"One of these resources is Hilinski's Hope. The Hilinski family's is a heartbreaking story that no parent should ever have to endure, but they have turned their pain into hope for others struggling with the disease. If this program helps just one person suffering with mental health, then it was more than worth it," added O'Malley. 
 
For more information regarding H3H, individuals can log on to their web site: hilinskishope.org.